Boomer
by Nigel Yearning
Summary: Security is a top-priority, better safe than sorry.
1. Chapter 1

_Chapter 1_

There could never be a day where one would rest peacefully.

Henry Park knew that well, in fact _all _Faradians knew that well. He had been taught since the age of five that life was daily survival. Everyday life depended on decisions that were carefully made, and these decisions can spell the meaning between life and death. Henry had stared fate in the eye when he foolishly went up against the legendary pikachu, Tesla Westinghouse. He nearly lost his raichu that week. It was a scary time for Henry. The thoughts of the classes he took back in school kept circulating through his head. The SERE classes, the Wilderness Survival classes, the kind of classes that give you knowledge that you hope you would never use. Those classes came back to Henry within days after the event. He brushed up on his old textbooks, then took great care in inspecting the locks around his home. If Tesla could get into locked houses, anyone can.

He drove down the older residential districts of Faraday City in the dead of night. The streets were lit with bright outdoor lamps. Bright bluish-white light lit up the buildings and road like a stage. The sky was black, not even the brightest star was visible. Henry tightened his grip on the steering wheel as he passed the old brick buildings. Rai Rai sat in the passenger seat next to him. He was dead asleep, snoring softly while bubbling snot out his nose. Henry hoped Rai Rai wouldn't make a mess on the seat. He was driving a rented moving van. Any gram of dirt left in the cab when he returns it would make the rental company slap a hefty fine on the bill, which would double the total rental cost. Henry grabbed a tissue from the tissue box and reached over and wiped Rai Rai's nose. The Mouse Pokémon snorted and adjusted his sleeping position. Henry wasn't sure how the raichu would do tonight. If Rai Rai starts goofing off, he might accidentally knock over and break something. The place he was going didn't have any fragile items or flimsy furniture. Everything was supposed to be built solid, says the Faraday Corp of Engineers Commission.

Henry looked up at the black sky and saw the city core sticking over the building line. The skyscrapers were beautiful. Modern buildings built ten to fifteen years ago out of the most advanced technology of the time. The triangular-skeleton rectangle buildings held office space for companies and federal agencies, while the cylindrical buildings grew agriculture. Several of the vertical farms were bright green, indicating they were ready for another harvest. Henry smiled, getting food on the table was a top priority. Like all Faradians he stocked his pantry with non-perishable canned goods. Food wasn't that expensive, as all food sold in Faraday City were grown in the vertical farms. On years with surpluses, Faradians clean out their pantries of food that have expired or were near expiration and donate whatever's edible to the Red Cross, where they were taken to not-so-fortunate places for hungry people. And like all Faradians, Henry kept his pantry full of more than a three weeks supply of food. If something were to happen to his hometown, he didn't want poor Rai Rai going hungry.

Henry eased off the petal and let the moving fan slow, then turned right. The place wasn't that far now. He reached up to Rai Rai and gave him a sharp poke in the belly. "Rai Rai," he said. "Wake up."

The raichu held up his head and yawned. "Raichu Rai?" he cooed.

"We're almost there, I'm going to need your help for this job tonight."

Rai Rai's eyes flutter open. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to let him sleep, he needed Rai Rai alert enough to stay focus, and hopefully he would stay focus. Henry is going to deliver supplies to a government-funded establishment. He need all the help he could get.

Henry made a left, then kept on straight. He checked the building numbers and the signs. He didn't need to look hard, up ahead he could see a black and yellow sign mounted over a step-down doorway. Henry pulled up to the curb in front of it and stopped, then checked the building number. This was the place. He threw the van in park and killed the engine. "Alright, Rai Rai," said Henry. "We're here!"

As Rai Rai undid his seatbelt, Henry reached down and picked up two green hard hats. Emblazoned on the front and sides of the hats was the CERT logo, the Community Emergency Response Team. People like Henry volunteer to act as first responders in case of an emergency. Most of the time they would train and study, or do community service. But when called to action, CERT troops first make sure their relatives are safe before going out to help others. The last time CERT was ever called into action was during the sporadic muli-Pokémon battles that were occurring on Faraday City's available green space, not to mention the riots that followed soon after.

Henry took one of the hats and stuck it on Rai Rai's head, the raichu smiled and adjusted the hard hat. "Rai!"

Henry unbuckled his seatbelt and stepped out of the van. He stretched his legs and brushed off his CERT uniform, then picked up the clipboard sitting in the driver side door's pocket. Rai Rai got down beside him and stretched his legs. Henry put on his hard hat, then checked the clipboard. "Okay, now what do we have here."

The clipboard had a list of objectives needed to be done before sunrise. It was vital that _all _the objectives were completed before 0700. Faraday Island's Federal Emergency Management Agency required that all government emergency centers in all the towns and cities on the island to be inspected at least once a week. The job isn't that bad. Henry get to go around Faraday City and observe all the shelters and other disaster management facilities. All the facilities had similar and identical equipment. Henry knew what to look for and what imperfections to find. It was just another routine job done hundreds of times, nothing difficult.

The first order of business was to unload the moving van's cargo and shelve them inside facility. Henry shut the van door and locked it, then approached entrance. The black and yellow sign was bolted to the brick wall at the corner of the step-down doorway. The sign was yellow, on it was a black circle with three upside-down yellow triangles. Underneath the top middle triangle was a smaller circle that tells the capacity of the facility. Below that was a black band that span the bottom half of the sign, and written in bright yellow bolded letters were two words that every Faradian is familiar with:

_FALLOUT SHELTER_

Technically they were officially called _Emergency Shelters, _but the term _Fallout Shelter _was commonly used. By law, all emergency public shelters must withstand the worst possible kind of hazard to human and Pokémon life: Radiation. Every neighborhood and community must, by law, have a public shelter that holds a minimum of one thousand individuals. Shelters built in the city core must hold a minimum of ten thousand. The total population of Faraday City is 700,000 residents. The number of public shelters built inside the city can hold at least a quarter of the population comfortably and a third at max capacity. Realizing this was not adequate enough, city engineers built smaller private emergency shelters in the basements of newer homes. These shelters were designed to hold a family of four comfortably and can hold eight at max capacity. Henry's own home wasn't old enough to have a pre-built shelter installed. Residents, however, were encourage to build them. These private shelters could hold another quarter of the population, which can help relieve the overflow at the public shelters. The remaining unsheltered population are expected to either shelter-in-place in a constructed makeshift shelter or leave the city altogether, which was good enough for FEMA.

Henry reached up and placed a hand on the fallout shelter sign. The metal sign was new, recently replaced. It was galvanized and painted, and felt cold to the touch. Henry turned and stepped down the fallout shelter's walkway, he got around about halfway before noticing Rai Rai wasn't following him. He looked back and saw Rai Rai sitting at the edge of the concrete stairs, his eyes were fearful.

"Are you coming, Rai Rai?" Henry asked.

Rai Rai stepped away. "Rai!"

Tesla caught him by leading him into a dropper trap. Rai Rai fell thirty meters down a derelict well. How did Tesla got him out was beyond Henry's imagination, but what was clear was the experience had traumatized him. Henry came back up and stopped when he was at eye-level with his raichu, then placed a hand on his shoulder. "There's nothing to be afraid of down there, Buddy. These fallout shelters are huge, they're built to be spacious. You're not going to get claustiphobic in there, I promise."

Rai Rai thought for a moment, then gave off a hesitated nod. "Rai."

Henry gently grabbed Rai Rai's stubby paw and led him down the stairs. When they reached the door, Henry let go and inspected the lock. There were two doors leading to the fallout shelter. The first door looked normal. It was made out of heavy-grade steel. The deadbolt engages retractable titanium pins from the door and latched themselves into the frame. The door is rated for a wind pressure of 350 KPM, which is roughly the same power as an EF5 tornado. Henry reached into his pocket and pulled out a key given to him by the shelter's owner days before. Though old fashioned, law requires that all emergency shelters are equipped with manual locks. That way anyone who needs to get in could pick the lock on the door and force their way inside. The shelter's doors only have keyholes for the deadbolts. Nobody will have the time to bust through two locks while an impending hazard is breathing down their backs.

Henry inserted the key and twisted it. He heard the titanium pins retract into the door. Henry twisted the door knob and pushed it open, revealing a pitch-black room. Henry reached to the side and flipped the light switch. The ceiling lights clicked on to reveal a thick concrete wall. The walls of the shelter were made out of 50cm of concrete, covered with 5cm steel plating. Quite expensive, but since Faraday Island had a lot of money on hand from exporting electronics the Faradian government was willing to provide a shelter built to last.

Which made Henry's job a lot more important.

Henry swung the door wide open and propped it open. The concrete wall was built between the first and second doors, its purpose was to halt the lethal gamma rays that made it through the exterior walls while providing blast resistance. Henry turned left and walked around the wall, then approached the second inner door. This door was the same as the last, nothing different. Henry inserted the key into the deadbolt, same as before. The pins retract and Henry opened up the second door. Before him was a large dark hallway as tall and wide as a high school hallway. Unlike the lights in the entrance, the lights in the emergency shelter were on its own circuit. Henry fished out his Maglite LED flashlight and clicked it on. The beam seemed to stretch forever into the darkness.

Rai Rai brushed against his leg. Mice Pokémon had excellent night-vision, but it is near useless against a pitch-black man-cave. There were no sources of ambient light in the fallout shelter save for Henry's flashlight, leaving Rai Rai literally in the dark. Henry reached down and scratched one of the raichu's ears. "We're going to turn on the power, once that's on we're free to explore the bunker as we like. But before that, we must get those boxes shelved. I need you to be strong for this one, we'll be here all night if we take too long."

"Raichu," muttered Rai Rai.

Henry crouched and held up Rai Rai's chin. "You're still reeling from what Tesla did, are you."

Rai Rai said nothing.

"I don't know what to tell you, I'm no psychologist. But what I do know is that it is not your fault for what happen. I don't know what Tesla did to you in those days, but he sure did apologized for what happened. Whatever he told you, I don't know, and maybe I do not wanna know. But one thing is for certain," Henry paused for a moment to think. "He was trying to survive, he had been harassed for years. We've pushed him too hard, and that was our mistake. Self-preservation is the name of the game. That was on the top of his mind while so many people have tried to capture him."

Henry pointed his MagLite at the doorway closest to them, it was labeled _Generator Room _in metal capitalized letters. He stood up and stepped into the room, Rai Rai followed behind, keeping as close to him as possible. Henry held the light up, revealing two Hydrogen fuel cells. The fuel cells were the size of a large refrigerator. Tubes and wires snaked around the sides and back. The pipework connecting two and from the fuel cells were labeled _Oxygen _and _Hydrogen. _Pipes snaking down from the ceiling and into the top of the fuel cells were labeled _H20. _Arrows next to the labels mark the directions where they're flowing. By law, complex machinery like this must be simplified. Even a child could operate a Faradian-designed fuel cell. Around the corner was a bio-diesel generator. The generator was designed with four simple components: The battery, the fuel tank, the motor, and the power switch. The exhaust is piped out the roof of the building above through a reinforced shaft. In case the building were to collapse, the shaft itself would remain standing and won't clog the pipe. The whole unit was painted black save for the fuel tank, which was painted yellow to symbolize its ability to hold diesel fuel. By law, the fuel tank must be empty at all times and only fueled for an emergency. Also by law, the generator must be tested now and then. Henry shined the light over at the breaker box and opened it up. The chart on the panel door said that the generator was last inspected a week ago and is in good working order.

Henry found the breaker that activates the fuel cells, he flipped it on. The monitors on the fuel cells went live. The boxy machines hummed a low tone, gases hissed through its intricate pipework, creating electricity. Henry flipped the main circuit breaker. The lights came on, piercing his night-vison.

He turned back to Rai Rai and found him rubbing his eyes, then looked up. "Rai?"

Henry said, "This fallout shelter is built for survival, Rai Rai. Many like this one are built all over the city. They're designed to not let this city die. We're here to maintain Faraday City's insurance policy, Rai Rai. So many people count on us to make sure these shelters work."

Rai Rai blinked, then managed a smile. "Rai Rai!"

Henry clicked off his flashlight and said, "Okay, let's get the truck unloaded and inspect everything."

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter 2_

The shelter not only had a primary storage room but had secondary storage shelves lining the main hallways. Henry and Rai Rai carried box after box of supplies while passing other shelves. Various logos of emergency disaster agencies bare the boxes. Food and water supplies were marked with the FEMA logo. Medical supplies were marked with the Red Cross. Radiation and hazmat equipment were marked with the WHO logo. Weapons and ammunition were marked with the five-pointed star of the military. Other symbols such as the tear drop and bullet adorned their respective boxes for further identification. The boxes Henry and Rai Rai were carrying were food rations, the fork, plate, and knife symbol was marked on the upper left corner on all four sides of the box. Every now and then, the owner would come down here and remove some of the oldest rations to either donate or serve them. He would then call CERT to replace the rations, all goods and shipping paid fully by the Faradian and city governments.

The storage room for food and water were separated and placed each at the back corners of the shelter. The food would be in the back left corner while the water is stored at the right. Henry heaved the box in his hands while Rai Rai carried his own. The boxes weren't that big, roughly around 40 cubic centimeters. Rai Rai could easily wrap his stubby arms around the box, but barely. He struggled to heave the box across the shelter as he and Henry approached the food storage room.

The room was nothing but shelves of identical looking boxes. Shelves lined the wall while more shelves were placed in rows in the middle. Food ration boxes sat in all of them. Two boxes per shelf, ten boxes for the entire case. The room was bigger was as wide as a garage, yet twice the length of a passenger train car. There were so many full shelves that it took Henry ten minutes to find empty shelving for his delivery. It took another thirty to forty minutes or so to bring down the entire load of boxes. By the time they all got to the last two boxes. Rai Rai had little strength left. When he and Henry reached the storage room, the final empty shelves were on top. The Mouse Pokémon simply dropped the box and collapsed on the floor in exhaustion.

"Rai," he panted.

Henry picked up Rai Rai's box and stuck it on the top shelf, then pulled his buddy back up to his feet. "There there, Rai Rai. We're all done for boxes."

The raichu smiled, "Chu."

Henry said, "Now comes the fun part, we're going to dig up some of the equipment and test them. What do you think of that?"

Rai Rai lit up like a Christmas tree. "Rai Rai!"

Henry checked his clipboard. First task done. The second task was to pick up a Geiger counter at random and checked to see if it worked. Henry stepped out of the storage room and searched the shelves for WHO boxes. Sure enough, Henry found a box marked full of radiation meters. Rai Rai stood by him and watched as his trainer took it down from the shelf and placed it on the floor, then opened up the top flaps. Bubble-wrap exploded out of the box. Henry bundled it up and set it aside, then peered inside. The box was lined with WHO branded radiation meters, no bigger than a Pokédex. Henry picked one up and removed its cardboard packaging. The Geiger counter was spray painted yellow and covered with a black rubber grip. An LED screen took up half the face, below were four buttons that adjust the volume and settings. Pretty basic and fancy, felt strong as well.

He pulled out the instruction manual out of the box and read it. "It says here that the Geiger counter has a built-in rechargeable battery pack, along with a panel for primary Lithium batteries. This is designed to be charged from the wall, or from a generator of some kind," he unfolded the manual skimmed a little further. "Looks like I could set it to any form of radiation measurement system. Roentgen, Rads, Centigram and such. Has a small radioactive isotope built in to calibrate the device, but it should not be detected by the actual sensor, which is on the back."

Henry turned the device around. The nuclear warning symbol was adorned just behind the screen. "I guess that's the sensor."

"Raichu," Rai Rai nodded.

Below the symbol was the manual power switch, below that was obviously the battery panel. Henry looked at the switch more closely. There were three settings: _OFF, RECHARGABLE, _and _PRIMARY_. Henry opened up the battery panel and looked inside. It was empty.

"Batteries not included," said Henry. "Make sense, because this thing have never been taken out of the box before."

Henry opened up the breast pocket of his uniform and pulled out a four-pack of Lithium batteries. "Good thing I bought some at the store."

Henry tore the package open and spilled out two of the AA+ batteries. Rai Rai watched in curiosity as Henry stuck the batteries in the panel and closed it up, then switched it to _Primary_. He turned the device around to find the LED screen was live, the meter prominently displayed in the center in Arial font. "Zero-point-zero micro Sieverts per minute," said Henry. "I'll just carry this with me while we check the other equipment, see if we can pick up anything."

"Chu, Raichu," said Rai Rai.

Henry left the box on the floor and got to work. The first thing to check was the communication center, located in the lower left corner of the bunker. Henry walked in and found a room filled with radio equipment and computers. The main console sat in the center of the room, sharing a desk with a videophone and a military-grade CB radio. Other smaller desks with radios and computers sat in front of the console, probably seats for assistance and advisors for the shelter manager, or for anyone in charge for that matter. Henry sat down behind the mainframe and booted it up, then enter an administrator password. Faraday Island's logo, a black silhouette of the pikachu Tesla Westinghouse over a purple background appeared the desktop main screen.

"Oh I bet Tesla hated being the Island's mascot," Henry said to no one in particular.

Rai Rai leaped up on Henry's lap and tried to get a seat on his thigh, Henry moved the raichu's long tail aside as he worked in checking the internet connection. The connection is working without any problems. Henry then began checking for updates. He found some and began downloading them, then ran the computer's anti-virus software. Henry scratched Rai Rai's ears as he reached over and turned on the radio. Techno music started pouring out of the speaker on the FM band. Henry surfed through both ends of the radio spectrum, then switched the radio to AM. The signals on both bands were crystal clear, no problems at all. Henry flipped the switch to the Emergency Alert System band. As always, an electronic human voice was going over a detailed loop of the weather report for today. "Radio's in order."

Henry finally reached over to the videophone and picked up the receiver and held it to his ear. Dial tone. He then dialed the number to his house and listened to it ring. The answering machine kicked in and his dad's pre-recorded voice answered. "Hello, you have reached the Park residence. We cannot come to the phone right now, please leave a message after the beep."

The phone beeped and Henry spoke. "This is Henry Park of the Community Emergency Response Team and I'm testing the phone line of our local community shelter. If you're getting this message, Mom and Dad, then the shelter's phone line is in working order."

He added a more personal message. "Rai Rai and I will be back home later this morning, I'll see you soon. Bye."

Henry clapped the receiver back on its cradle and turned to Rai Rai. "Looks like all that's still working."

Rai Rai nodded. "Raichu."

Henry nudged Rai Rai to get off his thigh, once the Mouse Pokémon got down Henry stood up and started for the door. "Now to test the air circulation unit," said Henry. "If that isn't working, air won't last for long."

The duo walked out of the Comm room and went back to the Generator room. There they found the main air system panel on the wall opposite of the bio-diesel generator. Henry saw it was online, he reached up to the nearby vent just to be sure. Cool dehumidified air flowed passed his fingers, the system was running quite normally. "There's air pump handle in every room," Henry explained to Rai Rai. "That way if the shelter lost all power, air could still be circulated through the room by hand cranked fans. Filtered through carbon and fiber-glass filters of course."

"Raichu," Rai Rai nodded.

Henry pulled out the radiation meter and held it up to the air vent. No ticking save for background radiation. Henry waved it the meter around the corners of the room. When he waved it near the generator he got a couple of loud ticks. He tried to pinpoint the source, but found nothing. The meter stayed 0.0 mSv, not even fluctuating. He then stepped out of the room and waved it across the hall, still nothing.

"You know what radiation does to you, Rai Rai?" Henry asked.

Rai Rai shook his head. "Rai Rai."

"Well, if you get enough of it. The cells around the certain part of you that are affected are damaged. They still function and work as normal, however they could no longer multiply. So when those cells expire, they're not being replaced. Your immune system takes a big hit, hence the name Radiation Syndrome. Some parts of your body, such as your skin and bone marrow, can make a full recovery. Your brain and kidneys cannot recover at all however."

Rai Rai shivered. "Raichu!"

Henry located a manual air intake crank between some shelving. He waved the meter over the handle, picked up nothing. "Alpha particles are so weak that they can't penetrate your skin, yet beta particles can and will cause really bad burns. If you're inside a house, you're pretty much shielded against those particles, however the gamma radiation is what causes the most damage. A basement or a shelter like this should be sufficient enough to hold out against the gamma rays."

He grabbed the manual handle and turned it 360 degrees. It had a normal tension of resistance, nothing broken.

"Neutron radiation is a big killer," said Henry. "No one is sure if anyone in the world had developed neutron bombs. Normally neutron particles are bonded with atoms to give them a stable mass. But if you get enough of these in an atom, probably enough to make Uranium. The atom becomes unstable and so ejects the neutrons, hence the name radiation. If the neutron hits other radioactive elements, they'll fuse with the element and give off two more neutrons, and those neutrons fuse with other elements and those atoms give off two neutrons each. A chain reaction. If controlled, you got a nuclear reactor. If you let go sporadic, you got yourself a nuclear bomb."

Henry turned to Rai Rai and added, "Neutron particles literally smashes into cells and obliterate them, even if you're in a fallout shelter, or even a military blast shelter. Neutrons can go through pretty much about anything unhindered until they're absorbed into the atmosphere. If a neutron bomb were to go off, mass death would ensue, yet not a single structure would be scratched."

He glanced at the radiation meter, the numbers were still zero. "Let's hope one doesn't go off, it's practically an endgame nuke."

"Raichu," Rai Rai nodded.

Henry wandered down the hall until he found the door to the living quarters, the heart of the shelter. Technically there were two living quarter rooms, both with a 500 resident capacity, built in the center of the shelter. Each corner of the rooms were lined with hallways and have eight doorways for easy access. Henry opened one of those doorways and peaked inside.

The room was huge, practically as big as a public library's main room. Instead of bookshelves, the room was lined with bunk beds. All the beds were sheeted with cloth and plastic to keep dust from collecting on the beds. Henry navigated his way through the bunk beds. Each end of the bed was butted up against the other and there was barely any walking room between each row. Three walls also had bunk beds scooted up against them. The forth, once again, had shelves, albeit empty. A sign was printed every five meters across the rim of the middle shelf, saying, _FOOD AND WATER ONLY_. Henry retraced his steps and made it back where he came. He grabbed the sheet on the bunk bed closest to him and pulled it down. The bunk bed had a steel plates covering each end. A tray was built at the area where the occupant to rest his head, maybe to hold people's stuff. The bottom and frames of the bunk bed was patted with foam to protect one from injury. Henry climbed underneath the bottom bunk and tried to lay underneath. He was a tall person, and yet there was enough room for his legs. It was barely wide enough. Henry got on his stomach and reached over to the tray and pretend to move imaginary objects. Everything was cramped, uncomfortable.

"Just imagine being in here with five hundred other people, Rai Rai," said Henry.

No response.

"Rai Rai?"

Nothing.

Henry climbed out of the bunk bed and looked around. Rai Rai was nowhere in sight. He cupped his hands and shouted, "Rai Rai!?"

Again, nothing.

Henry swore and pulled the dust covers back on the bunk bed. "That raichu always wanders off, I can never keep track of him."

Oh well, he would turn up. The bunker may be big but it is all contained. There's only two ways out of here, one entrance was sealed beforehand and Henry had sealed the one they entered through. Rai Rai couldn't open doors so well, so there wasn't much chance of leaving.

Henry pulled out the radiation meter and began scanning the beds, again he got nothing. He kept an ear out for Rai Rai as he checked the entire room. The Mouse Pokémon was childish, he could be hiding underneath one of the bunk beds. He might be waiting for Henry to come by so he could pop out and scare him. Then again, Rai Rai was fearful of tight spaces…

Henry stopped, muttering to himself, "Fearful of tight spaces, of course."

He simply went back the way he came and stepped back out through the door. Rai Rai sat up against one of the shelves, his tiny arms propped up on his chin. The raichu looked up and saw his trainer approached, he held out his stubby paws and whined.

"Did you hear me from the next room?"

Rai Rai shook his head. "Raichu."

"Even with the door open?"

Rai Rai nodded.

"Damn, Rai Rai. You had me worried there." Henry let out a sigh and said, "Then again, staying out here saves me a lot of trouble of finding you. All the beds were cramped up against each other. I guess you already got the feel of being trapped underground."

Rai Rai nodded. "Rai."

"Just imagine being with 1,000 refugees down here."

The Mouse Pokémon's eyes went big, he got up to his feet and hugged Henry's legs.

Henry reached down and scratched Rai Rai's ears, "There there, Buddy. We're just about done here, we're going now."

Rai Rai let out a sigh of relief. "Chuuu."

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter 3_

Henry packed the radiation detector back where he found it and stuck the box back into the shelf. He then went to the generator room and shut off all the systems, then left the bunker. He and Rai Rai drove the moving van back to the rental place and parked it in the parking lot. The world was still empty in the early hours of the morning. The facility was closed, so Henry dropped the keys underneath the floor mat and locked the moving van as he left. Rai Rai struggled to stay upright. The raichu was tired, even yawning occasionally. Henry kept his hand on the back of Rai Rai's neck as they walked all the way back home. A part of him stayed alert as they walked the empty streets. Faraday City may be safe, but an occasional mugging and armed robbery does happen. Self-defense laws were not so strict on Faraday Island compared to other places in the world. The victim can incapacitate or even render the mugger unconcious, so long as the mugger doesn't get killed on the spot.

That doesn't give Henry much relief, in fact that made things more challenging. Before the law was passed a year ago, muggers would point a gun or brandish a knife and demand money. When the law was enacted, muggers changed strategies. They would go up to their potential victim from behind and place a knife to their throat or a gun to their back. Often these muggers would injure their victim and make a run for it when spooked. Sometimes both the victim and mugger are injured in the confrontation.

Henry's solution was to wear a ballistic vest and keep a hunting knife on his person for such encounter. He had lived in Faraday City for all his life to know how to survive the front and back streets. One problem traveling at night was that Rai Rai slows him down. The Mouse Pokémon would always get tired at night and become slow and groggy. The raichu was too heavy to be carried, so Henry had to keep nudging his boot up against Rai Rai's butt just to keep him moving. It got on Henry's nerves, though he never let his frustration show. Rai Rai was his best-friend, he could never be mad at him for even five minutes.

Tonight seemed to boost Rai Rai's alert level. The Mouse Pokémon was moving faster than he would on other nights. Henry noticed his eyes were wide open, constantly looking around, even occasionally looking behind him. That could be a sign that an impending threat was nearby, maybe even stalking him. Henry knew cases where a Pokémon would go on high-alert just moments before a mugger would attack their trainer.

_Don't take any chances, _Henry told himself. He tapped Rai Rai on the shoulder, then said, "Get in front of me, and follow my lead."

Rai Rai quickly moved in front of Henry and he nudged him toward a random turn. They both started jogging, moving at a careful pace. The only way to lose a potential mugger was to move through three blocks by taking random ninety degree turns. Then move through a few more blocks taking routes at random. If still in doubt, move to a highly foot-traveled area and call a cab to pick you up, then instruct the cab driver to loop a 180 through the neighborhood before heading straight for home.

Henry initiated the first plan by guiding Rai Rai through four random ninety degree turns through the block, then he went straight on through two blocks and made a random right. He then stopped Rai Rai and pressed his back against a wall and listened.

Nothing, no sounds, no footfalls, and no one in sight for that matter.

He looked down at Rai Rai and the raichu's black marble eyes looked up at him. Henry nudged Rai Rai onward, without saying anything he guided him home.

The both made it back to safety without further incident. Henry's house was a first story home, somewhere around forty to fifty years old. It had a conjoining kitchen, living room, and den, followed by three bedrooms and a single bathroom. Like all houses it had solar panels and a small discreet wind turbine on the roof. The whole house was practically rewired three times in its history. The value was slumping south, Henry's dad was considering demoing the house and rebuilding it. Heck, it was built before disaster-proof regulations were implemented.

The windows of the house were black, no vacant light. Henry jogged up to the door and punched in the code, then nudged Rai Rai through the door and locked it behind them. He then pressed his back against the wall and breathed. "Oh, what a night."

Rai Rai yawned. "Raichu."

The house was dark and quiet. Henry took Rai Rai by the hand and led him through the den, then down the hall toward their bedroom. It was a military-styled room. The walls were painted olive drab, the bed sheets and pillow case were olive drab, the comforter was digital camo. His desk was made out of steel, also painted olive drab. A plastic and steel utility shelf sat at the corner of the room. Survival tools and equipment lined each shelves. Flashlights, a weather radio, packs of batteries, even a toolbox loaded with the usual equipment adorn the shelf. Reference manuals and books lined the top shelf, being held in place with bricks.

Henry stripped off his CERT uniform and dumped it at his computer chair. Rai Rai took off his CERT hard hat and placed it on the computer chair. Henry then climbed into bed and pulled up the covers. Rai Rai jumped up and crawled beside him. Both the Mouse Pokémon and the trainer couldn't stay awake any long, they fell asleep within minutes.

**. . .**

Henry's alarm clock wasn't exactly a clock. It was an emergency alert radio. The radio had access to the FM and AM bands as well as the EAS band. Henry had bought the radio about a year before and had changed the backup batteries only once. He programed the radio to get him up around 0600. It chirping isn't that loud, it gave out a two-beat pulse when the time comes to sound an alarm. However, the radio is also programed to announce incoming EAS messages, and rather than an alarm, it sounded like a siren.

That pretty much happened when the radio started screaming. Henry tuned himself to not ignore the siren, he threw the covers up and glanced at its display. _Civil Unrest Watch _flashed on its digital screen. Henry hit the snooze button and the siren went dead.

He glanced over at Rai Rai. His stubby hands were gripping his ears as he groaned. Henry checked the time, 0545, close enough to 0600.

"You keep on sleeping, Rai Rai," he said. "I'll get breakfast ready."

The raichu turned away from him and grunted, Henry patted Rai Rai on his side then got out of bed. He stepped out of the room and walked down to the kitchen. Another emergency radio sat on the counter, this one a little more expensive than Henry's nightstand one. Rather than screaming a siren it was flashing a bright orange light. Its LED display presented more information. Henry could clearly see not only the _Civil Unrest Watch _being displayed, but the time it was displayed. He pressed the snooze button and turned on the radio, it began talking in a male electronic voice. _Civil Unrest advisory for the Redenker building, _Henry thought. _Sh*t, protesters are at it again._

The push for independence from Unova was picking up speed by the day. There were more protests by the day and week, making Henry's job more important. Good thing he checked that shelter, as some paranoid people may be taking shelter in it right now. But more or less, the protests never got out of hand and they never last that long.

Henry let the radio talk as he opened up the pantry and pulled out two cans of beans and regular whole wheat cereal. He sat the cereal on the counter and opened up the cans of beans, then dump them in a pot. He turned on the induction cooktop and let it ran as he made coffee for himself. The house was empty save for him and Rai Rai, he could tell that his parents weren't home. They were Faradian civil servants at City Hall, they often leave early and come back late, and on some days they never came back home at all. Henry didn't mind, he was often at his own workplace for some parts of the day, and on free days he would usually take Rai Rai out and swing by Mark Kissinger's place. _Not this week_, he thought. _Mark's out of town in Unova for something, he has yet to call back._

Once the pot of beans was boiling, Henry turned off the stove and grabbed a bowl from the pantry and filled it with beans and sat it on the kitchen table. He then grabbed a glass and filled it with cereal. Henry opened up the fridge and grabbed the carton of milk and poured it into the glass. It was a weird way of eating breakfast, but convenient nonetheless.

He poured another glass of cereal and milk and another bowl of beans for Rai Rai, then sat down to eat breakfast. 0600 came and Rai Rai wondered into the kitchen. The raichu was still tired from last night, he didn't wanna get up. The raichu sat down at the table and began to eat his breakfast. Oddly enough, sometimes Pokémon would eat the same food as their first trainer. Not all of them do this, but on Faraday Island almost all Pokémon eat the same food as their trainer, save for the civil servant Pokémon who must follow by a strict diet. Rai Rai could not use his hands to grip utensils. His paws were short and he had no fingers. So Rai Rai picked up the bowl and slurped down the beans. He took it slow, savoring each taste.

The emergency radio continued on to daily weather reports, by the time Henry and Rai Rai finished their beans the radio had finished its report and was just about to repeat itself. Henry got up and turned off the radio, then picked up his glass of cereal and walked over to the living room couch and sat down. Rai Rai stayed at the table to eat his cup of cereal, which was understandable, as he could barely grip things in his stubby hands. Henry turned on the TV and glanced over at Rai Rai. The raichu was taking his time eating the cereal. He wasn't really hungry, but he always eat all the food presented to him. Henry trained him like that, not directly at least, but Rai Rai seemed to learn how when he was really young.

_Which wasn't so long ago, _Henry thought.

Rai Rai finished his cup of cereal, he got down and pushed a stool up to the sink, then carried his bowl and glass over and washed them. He sat the bowl and glass aside and walked over to Henry. Rai Rai climbed up on the couch and curled up beside him. Henry scratched the raichu's ears, then said, "I remember when I first got you as an egg."

Rai Rai looked up at him. "Rai?"

Henry smiled, "I was only ten years old, I wanted a little Mouse Pokémon. My parents went over to a Pokémon breeder here in Faraday City and ordered you one. They brought you home in a box of Styrofoam peanuts. I was estatic, it was the best birthday present I ever had," Henry wrapped an arm under Rai Rai's waist and pulled him up. "And it was the best present I ever had since."

Rai Rai smiled. "Chu!"

"I kept you on that same bed in that box of Styrofoam peanuts and wrapped you up with blankets. I waited days and weeks for you to hatch. A full month was about to pass, the next thing I knew was Styrofoam peanuts exploded everywhere at zero-three-hundred hours in the morning," Henry reached down and gently pinched Rai Rai's cheek. "You were a tiny thing, all covered up in Styrofoam peanuts. You remember that moment when you first hatched, right?"

Rai Rai nodded. "Raichu."

"And you quickly grew from that point on. Boy everyone wanted to cuddle you a lot in your pichu and pikachu days. You would often get overwhelmed and would rush back to me for protection. I guess the attention is too much for you."

"Raichu."

"Your final evolution was humorous, remember that day when we were out in the fields enjoying the sunrise? You were running around and suddenly you found a thunderstone in a rotted log, you practically reached down and scooped it up with your mouth. You were a brand new raichu by the time you drop that thunderstone at my feet."

Rai Rai chuckled, Henry tickled the Mouse Pokémon's belly. "And boy you got chubby, I could hardly carry you anymore."

Rai Rai giggled, he tried to get away but Henry held him down. "Oh no you don't."

Henry reached under and scooped Rai Rai up in his arms. The raichu weight like a ton, Rai Rai laughed as Henry cradled him in his arms. "So big and strong, yet so ticklish. Isn't that something?"

The videophone began to ring. Henry sat Rai Rai down on the couch and said, "I wonder who could that be."

Henry got up and walked over to the phone. The name _Andrew Westinghouse _was displayed on the touchscreen along with the person's phone number. Henry didn't recognize the name, yet it sounded familiar. He pressed a button on answer button on the screen. A man somewhere in his late forties and early fifties appeared on the screen. He looked like sh*t. The man wore a white doctor's coat over a sky-blue polar shirt and purple tie. They were filthy, probably hadn't been washed in weeks. His gray hair was messy and his glasses were cracked. He looked kind of like a mad scientist.

Maybe he is a mad scientist, or was.

"Uh, hello?" Henry asked.

"Your name's Henry Park?" the man asked.

"Yes, uh who are you?"

"My name's Andy, I'm a Pokémon Doctor. Born and raised in Faraday Island. My grandfather happened to be named Irvin."

"Tesla's trainer?"

Andy's face lit up. "Ah, so you do know him! Tesla was just here at my place weeks ago. I don't know where he is now, but I'm trying to get a hold of Mark Kissinger. He was also here, he told me you were his best-friend."

Henry glanced over to Rai Rai, his eyes were going big.

"Uh, _human _best-friend."

Rai Rai breathed a sigh of relief, Henry chuckled and said, "See what I did there, Rai Rai?"

He turned back to Andy. "My raichu is sitting here on the couch, he also had a run-in with Tesla in Faraday Island."

"The way Tesla put it, he told me he kicked your ass because you were an idiot."

"That pretty much how it went down, and for Rai Rai's case quite literally."

"Tesla pulled him out of that well using a rope, then he used that same rope to tie him up." Then Andy said, "Well, anyway. I just wanted to know if you have seen Mark. I had just got done talking to his father, he told me you were the last person to see him."

"He went back to Unova for something," said Henry. "He said he was trying to track down some of Irvin's Pokémon. Does the name 'Nobark' sounds familiar to you?"

Andy nodded. "Yes, he's Irvin's scrafty. He's quite unstable, but loving."

"Mark had an idea of breaking into Irvin's old farmhouse to see what's inside. Instead we got a whole lot of nothing, because his grandpa cleaned out the house."

"I helped out with that," said Andy. "What I found was the more the place went empty, the more stranger it got."

Henry shrugged. "We've figured it was haunted, we kept hearing ghostly Pokémon voices all over the place. Doors were opening and closing by themselves, even locking themselves. Then there was gunfire out in the porch. We were the only ones there, nothing but trees for kilometers." He took a breath and added, "Mark found Nobark's essays underneath the slab of concrete that might be his bed, and next he found the trunk in Irvin's bedroom. He broke into that and salvaged all the journals and USB sticks he could find."

"What did he do with them?"

"He made several copies of all the files on those sticks and stored them in larger USB sticks he got from RadioShack, then distributed a copy to everyone he knew. And then he left for Unova, carrying with him the essays and two USB sticks filled with Irvin and Tesla's history."

Andy nodded. "I might try to find him here then, any idea where he might be?"

"Somewhere around the east coast, that's all I know." Then Henry asked, "By the way, what do you need him for?"

"I can't say over the phone, all I can say is that it is complicated and I need his help. If you happen to see him again, tell him to call me. Can you manage that?"

"Yes, how dire is it?"

"Dire."

"Then I'll make things as fast as possible on my end. Is there anymore I could do?"

"Yes," said Andy. "When the moment happens, be sure to be ready, and keep your raichu inside your house. He might become a target when everything becomes real."

Henry was puzzled, how was his raichu vulnerable in all this? Andy looked over his shoulder, paused for a sec, then whipped his head back toward Henry. "I spoke too long already, just be ready. Bye, Henry."

"Bye."

Andy killed the connection and the screen went black. Henry pressed the end call button and turned to Rai Rai, "What was all that about?"

Rai Rai shrugged. "Raichu."

"'Be ready,' he said. Be ready for what?" Henry turned to Rai Rai as if he had an answer. The raichu only responded with clueless eyes.

Henry sense something was up, and Rai Rai sensed it too. Whatever it is, Henry had a feeling it would turn big within days. He left the living room and walked back to his bedroom, he stepped up to his bookshelf and reached for a binder on the top shelf. The binder was black, thick with hundreds of hole-punched pages and dividers. A paper note saying, _For Emergencies Only, _was taped to the cover. Henry opened it up. The binder contained a list of worst-case scenarios that could happen to the city. Henry skimmed through a few pages to be sure it was up to date. He then closed the binder and carried it back to the living room. Rai Rai watched as his trainer held the binder up. "We're going to the library today, Buddy," he said. "Looks like we've got some work to do."

Rai Rai was less than thrilled, but nodded in agreement. The Mouse Pokémon knew an important task when he saw it. He was trained to look for them, just like Henry had when he was in military school.

Both Henry and Rai Rai had no idea what was brewing up north in Unova, it was bigger than they could possibly imagine.

**THE END!**


End file.
